Surprised Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Russian Diplomats are Pleasantly Surprised

It seems as though the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is deeply confused. In the high-rise of the Smolensk Square, no one expected that the new treaty negotiations regarding restrictions on strategic offensive arms would suddenly begin to gather momentum. However, the Russian diplomats are actually glad to see this type of confusion.

“The degree of progression is above our initial expectations,” declared Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. But only a week ago our Ministry of Foreign Affairs sources informed us that the negotiations are moving very slowly; that there are still lots of stones left unturned and that it will be hardly possible to sign the new agreement by December 5, 2009, the expiration date of the former strategic arms reduction treaty.

In the last several months, three rounds of negotiations have already taken place. However, their results did not instill optimism in Russian-American relations. After all, the red button presented to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov by the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already been pressed. The reset has begun.

So the Americans were able to surprise the Russians. No doubt that negotiation process was affected by this key fact: four days remained before the U.S. president’s visit to Moscow. And Barack Obama has proven several times already that he is in the White House to solve real problems, not just to engage in political outings. In other words, he clearly demands concrete results from the American diplomats. It is apparent that the Russian diplomats are facing the same challenges.

At this point, Sergei Ryabkov is confident that by December they should be able “to prepare a comprehensive document outlining the verification measures and information exchange procedures, which contain provisions to ensure equal security and significant reduction of strategic offensive weapons through effective verification.” However, it seems as though the success has not gone to the heads of the Russian diplomats.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is currently trying to figure out how to keep the Obama administration’s new signed agreements in effect. After all, Washington has repeatedly shown how easily it has broken their preceding agreements. That already happened with the anti-missile defense. There is no guarantee that it won’t happen again.

“No one should underestimate the degree of distrust that the Russian society has for American political policy. We should work and hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst,” noted Ryabkov. It is probable to assume that the American diplomats feel the same way.